Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Dueling Rallies. By Geniusofdespair


The crowd at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the Mall in Washington.(Credit: AirPhotosLive.Com)

According to CBS News, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally had an estimated 215,000 people. The company commissioned to do the estimate also did the estimate for Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in August. That rally was estimated to have attracted 87,000 people. Both numbers have a margin of error of 10%. It looks like sanity and fear trump honor. Below: a Beck Rally photo.


And in comparison:


14 comments:

youbetcha' said...

I am happy that I wasn't there to deal with traffic.

Anonymous said...

The National Park Service estimates between 300,000 and 325,000 people attended the Glenn Beck rally.

Geniusofdespair said...

No they didn't.

Anonymous said...

The Park Service doesn't do official estimates anymore after the 1995 Million Man March,

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/why-its-so-hard-to-estimate-crowd-size-glenn-becks-or-otherwi/19613962

Rick said...

The National Park Service estimates between 300,000 and 325,000 people attended the Glenn Beck rally.

Is that what Rush said or was it Hannity or was it Beck or was it...oh, forget it.

.

Mario A. said...

I was there, and it was one of the most awesome days I've ever had. Happy, smart and funny people. No fights, no drinking, no negativity.
Despite some logistical hassles, I'd go again tomorrow.

Hawk8 said...

Sanity is alive and well and living all over the USA.
I am so sorry that I couldn't go but knew several people that went.
I watch the whole program and cried when I saw how many people went.
Long live sanity and hope!

Anonymous said...

It was crowded. I hear some estimates of 400,000. I am not able to judge, but movement was almost impossible from the stage almost to the Wash Monument. Crowd extended 3 blocks up 7th from the Mall. Lovely day, very courteous crowd, funny signs. He proved his point without a doubt - political discourse is dominated by the fringe which is truly a tiny minority. I say we go from Nixon's Silent Majority and Robertson's Moral Majority to talking about the "Normal Majority". These people really were the normal ones - kids, jobs, thoughts, bills to pay. Every age, every background. They knew they couldn't hear the PA or see the stage, they just wanted to be counted. If you made voting mandatory like in Australia and Brazil, these people would dominate the body politic and we wouldn't look like such lunatics to the rest of the world. But these people are busy only have time to get involved to do a kick save when some lunatic notion is close to taking over. That might be now.

Anonymous said...

The picture of one rally is of the capitol bldg area while the pic of the other rally is of the Lincoln memorial. Can't you supply pics of the same location so we can compare? Or were the events held in different locations.

Your 87,000 attendence figure for the Beck rally is from left wing CBS news, a competitor of Beck's employer, Fox news. CBS news is well known for its liberal bias and it is not a credible source.

Milly Herrera, Hialeah said...

The Tea Party was a great concept when it started, but it has since been hijacked by the extremist Republicans. On the other hand, this "insanity" march scares me even more, reminding me of photos from Cuba's communist revolution in 1959 and the people marching through the streets of Havana.

Open your eyes people, the truth is not with either side; it has been lost somewhere in the middle. Don't be taken in.

Some Democrats on too far left and way too "socialistic" and some Republicans on the far right have become too greedy and hateful. Both have abandoned their party's true principles. Where does this leave the greater majority of members of both parties?

There is middle ground, and government should work more constructively; the idiocy of the extremists on both ends needs to stop. I keep saying that more citizens should register as Independents (NPA)!

We need to restore a strong middle class by bringing back jobs and lowering taxes, support immigration reform, but deport the arms/drug dealers and criminals, use military forces to secure our borders and shores, save necessary social services, improve healthcare without the need for a socialist system, uphold the U.S. Constitution, and end public corruption.

P.S. - If you work for the government and want to earn the big bucks, go to the private sector and do it there; the taxpayers can no longer afford your inflated salaries and pensions.

Where do the people in the middle, like myself, go march?

Anonymous said...

The Tea Party is the Republican Party. How horrible for the people who think they are voting for their own vision of it.

Anonymous said...

I was there with my 17 year old son. It was worth the expense and trouble to fly to DC for the day. I went to make a statement: I don't yell at other opinions. I don't watch CNN, Fox or MSNBC. I love my country and I am proud to be an American, but we need a heavy dose of civility and respect in the current political dialogue. In the end, it was a fun day with purpose!

Lady Di said...

The Tea Party is the POPULIST CONSERVATIVE wing of the Republican Party (with some like-minded Independents along for the ride). The Tea Party is not the Republican Party's religious wing, militaristic wing, racist wing, libertarian wing, and definitely not the Republican liberal/moderate establishment wing.

The populist conservative wing had been increasingly neglected by the Republicans in office since the Reagan years. The Tea Party movement is an effort to refocus the Republican Party on conservative populist issues, which are the issues that win elections.

Anonymous said...

Beck said tonight that he agreed with some of the things that was said there over this weekend.